15 October marked the first anniversary of President Aristide's return to Haiti and the return to constitutional government. The occasion was marked by official ceremonies, and also demonstrations calling for the president to remain in power. There were few incidents, one of the exceptions being the stoning of US Vice-president Gore's wife Tipper's motorcade by protestors in Cité Soleil. The demonstration was largely directed at Dr Reginald Boulos, administrator of a local hospital, who has frequently been accused by certain sectors of collaborating with the de facto regime.

A former brigadier general, Henri Max Mayard, was intercepted in broad daylight on 3 October and machine gunned to death by a group of unidentified armed individuals using two vehicles. He was the highest ranking former army officer to be killed since the return to constitutional government. The motive of the killing and the authors remains unknown.

Only five cases of summary "justice" have been recorded so far for October, among them an IPSF officer in Jean Rabel (North West) who fired his gun during a dispute at a funeral and was subsequently stoned to death by a crowd.

Several shootings by HNP and IPSF officers were reported, though none fatal, including a man wounded after allegedly hitting an HNP officer with an iron bar during a dispute with a third party on 15 October in Anse à Veau. The HNP officer concerned told MICIVIH that he shot the victim as the latter was running away. A second person was wounded on 3 October in Grande Rivière du Nord when resisting arrest. The victim, shot in the leg, claimed that the officer fired on him without provocation. CIVPOL reported that the HNP officer fired in self-defence when the suspect was about to throw a rock at him. In another case, apparently under investigation by police, an IPSF officer shot and wounded two construction workers on 10 October in Carrefour when trying to calm a hostile crowd of workers involved in a confrontation over the confiscation of building materials.

Allegations of beatings, one by HNP and the rest by APENA guards were reported by detainees in Grande Rivière du Nord, St Marc and Mirebalais. However, MICIVIH's investigations have so far been inconclusive in confirming the reports. In one case, that of an APENA inspector accused of hitting ten detainees in Mirebalais, the inspector himself acknowledged using a riot stick to "pressure" detainees while in the process of restoring order following a protest but denied beating them. In Jeremie prison authorities told MICIVIH they had suspended a prison guard without pay for a week after he slapped a detainee in the face during a dispute.

MICIVIH is also investigating a report that a man was beaten up by a police aide working with the local CASEC in a rural commune of the department of the West. CASECs have appointed police aides in a number of rural areas where there are no official police deployed (particularly in the departments of the West, South and Centre). A handful of abuses have been reported by police aides since January but they have been difficult to document because of the remoteness of some of the locations. One of the main concerns however is the appointment of police auxiliaries who have no official status and no formal mechanism of supervision.

MICIVIH had several meetings with HNP officials responsible for investigating allegations of police abuses and were informed that several investigations had been completed and decisions imminent. Two police officers in Port-au-Prince were reported suspended temporarily, one after being involved in a case of intimidation in August, the second in a case of manslaughter in July. MICIVIH wrote to the Minister of Justice on 19 October recommending certain amendments to the manner in which investigations were initiated by the HNP Inspection Générale to ensure that all cases of killings, serious injuries and ill-treatment be investigated ex-officio by the Inspection. MICIVIH also wrote this month to the head of the Administration Pénitentiaire Nationale (APENA) concerning several detainees reportedly beaten in September in the National Penitentiary.

Several irregularities in detention procedures were documented in Port-au-Prince, including a woman arrested on 3 October in place of her 13-year-old son (she was released three days later after the judge ruled that her arrest was illegal, though she was ordered to appear again in court); the detention of minors in cells with adults in Omega police station in Carrefour and the use of the police station as a holding centre for detainees for longer than 48 hours. According to a police captain, the latter was due, partly, to delays in cases being heard by justices of the peace. Conditions in one of the cells visited were reported to be basic, with no window and insufficient mattresses for the number of detainees.

Increased numbers of detainees in certain areas continued to provoke tensions. In Gonaives, for example, disturbances were reported on 23 October when detainees protested at delays in the legal proceedings against them. St Marc and Fort Liberte were among the other places where high prisoner numbers were becoming a problem. In Cap Haitien, on the other hand, conditions appeared to have improved with additional cells and materials and also better provisions for security. During a visit to Fort National prison for women and minors in Port-au-Prince noted that only 14 out of the 65 women held there had been sentenced, and 22 women had been held for more than three months in preventive detention.

There were developments in legal proceedings against alleged perpetrators of past human rights abuses in the departments of the Artibonite, Centre, Grande Anse and the North. Among the cases followed by MICIVIH was the arrest, in Limbé (North), of former FAdH soldier Ferdinand Francois on 9 October. Local people accused him of numerous incidents including beating a woman to death in 1993. In Lascahobas (Centre) a former attaché, Claude Baptiste, was arrested on 12 October for the murder, in 1992, of Andrel Lafortune. However, he escaped shortly afterwards apparently with the assistance of the IPSF officer who was guarding him. The IPSF officer was himself arrested for abetting the escape, released and then rearrested after a new arrest warrant was issued. Baptiste has not yet been recaptured. Former FRAPH member Louis Ylavoir and Lirius Legagneur were convicted of the 1993 murder of Jean Claude Dimanche and sentenced to forced labour for life at the Criminal Assises which began in Jeremie at the beginning of October. Proceedings in investigations into the 1994 massacre in the Raboteau district of Gonaives ground virtually to a halt, particularly after the dismissal of the juge d'instruction, although another former member of the FAdH was arrested in connection with the case at the beginning of October.

Several incidents were reported in the aftermath of the September second round elections and 8 October reruns. Twenty-eight people were reported arrested on 9 October during a violent protest by Lavalas supporters at the BED in Jacmel after a decision was announced that elections for deputy would be rerun in December because of alleged fraud on 17 September. All but one demonstrator had been released by 16 October. Protests were organised in several other places including Ranquitte (North), where the local court was temporarily boarded up by protestors following rumours circulated that the results of the second round of elections had been annulled. Roadblocks were reportedly set up in Anse-à-Galets and Pointe-à-Raquette on the Ile de la Gonâve on 7 October to protest at alleged fraud.

In a report to the UN General Assembly made public on (?30 October?), the UN Secretary-General stated that he would recommend the extention of the mandate of MICIVIH for six months beyond February 1996 should the Haitian authorities request it. The report concluded that there had been considerable improvement in the human rights situation and that fundamental freedoms are enjoyed by all sections of society, including by political opponents and rcrittics of the President and the Government. It stated that efforts undertaken by the Governmetn of Haiti to improve the justice and penal systems had proceeded apace, as well as the training and deployment of the new Haitian Police Forces. Nevertheless, sporadic reports of violations had been received and the weakness of the judiciary and the often arbitrary nature of decisions and actions continued to be a source of concern regarding respect for legal and constitutional guarantees. The report outlined MICIVIH's role in police training and judicial and penal reform.